In preparation for the fast of the 17th of Tamuz, 5774 (July 15, 2014), I offer here the words of Mishnah Berurah (549:1): “Every person is obligated to introspect on these [communal fast] days, and to examine one’s deeds and repent of them, for the principle obligation is not fasting… Fasting is merely a preparation […]

In an earlier post, I quoted from Tana d’Vey Eliyahu Rabah a story about Eliyahu haNavi (Elijah the Prophet) visiting a widow and instructing her to separate a portion of bread for him first as a sign that he (Eliyahu) would first come to the exile, followed by the redeemer. (Please read that story to […]